The Blues moved in front on 16 minutes through Mark McAllister who sent a powerful close range header past Chris O'Connor after meeting a Brian McCaul cross from the right.

And they might have doubled their lead on 29 minutes after Damien Curran came close with a curling free-kick from the edge of the area, forcing O'Connor into a superb save to tip the ball over.

But Bohemians levelled two minutes from the break when Paul Keegan sent over a corner from the left for Ken Oman to header beyond Stuart Addis from a few yards out.

Linfield almost regained the advantage on 58 minutes when McCaul headed narrowly wide from a Marcus Kane cross.

That proved to be Kane's last meaningful contribution to the game after he picked up a second booking on 67 minutes, thus reducing the visitors to ten men.

McCaul came close again on 73 minutes but after that Bohemians applied the pressure and duly grabbed the winner three minutes from the end through Raffaele Cretaro who flicked the ball over Addis from a Gary Burke through ball.

The Bohs almost grabbed a third right at the end but Jason Byrne's low drive clipped an upright before drifting to safety.